Education Minister Christopher Pyne will require teaching graduates to pass a literacy and numeracy test in the wake of a review which found universities were failing to prepare teaching graduates properly.

Deep in the bowels of Parliament House, as Tony Abbott entered the Liberal party room to answer those who would have him sacked, key members of the Prime Minister’s staff loitered in a deliberately casual kind of way.

Fleur Anderson | Deep in the bowels of Parliament House, as Tony Abbott entered the Liberal party room to answer those who would have him sacked, key members of Prime Minister’s staff loitered in a casual kind of way.

Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop isn’t calling on Liberal MPs discussing a leadership spill of the Liberal Party to stop, a sign that momentum is building for a vote next week. Christopher Pyne says spill push is “obvious”.

ABC managing director Mark Scott has defended the broadcaster’s decision to close its Adelaide production unit, accusing politicians that have attacked him over the decision of failing to understand the economics of independent television production.

It’s understandable why Senators Glenn Lazarus and Jacqui Lambie might have voted against Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s university reforms. But left as it is, the demand-led system created by Labor is not sustainable – either financially or in terms of the educational outcomes that the country needs.

Concessions offered by the government in a bid to have the Senate pass its higher education changes would cost $3.5 billion from the almost $4 billion in savings the cuts were budgeted to save over the next three years.

Updated | A crossbench senator who was prepared to vote for the higher education cuts has hit out at the Minister Christopher Pyne for suggesting he wanted a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign to try and sway the public mood.

South Australians’ deep cynicism about the Abbott government’s decisions on the automotive and defence industries may influence two coming state byelections, according to one of the state’s political experts.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne has conceded that laws to deregulate university fees may not be passed by parliament until next year, which Labor says casts doubt on the policy’s proposed 2016 start date.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne has conceded that laws to deregulate university fees might not be passed by federal parliament until next year, which Labor says casts doubt on the proposed start date.

School leaver applications to start university in 2015 are up by two per cent on last year, a figure hailed by Education Minister Christopher Pyne as showing that the Labor and union fees scare campaign is failing.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has ramped up pressure on the Senate to pass higher education budget measures by vowing to press ahead with cuts to universities even if the government fails to secure fee deregulation.

Exclusive | Public TAFE colleges have called for an urgent federal government inquiry into the “extraordinary revenue and profitability claims” made by some listed private education providers and others expected to float soon.

Jacqui Lambie said on Friday that Education Minister Christopher Pyne “hinted” to her he would give the University of Tasmania federal government money if she would vote in the Senate to deregulate higher education.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne has condemned and distanced himself from an onslaught of racist and sexist remarks made by one of the experts chosen to advise the Abbott Government’s curriculum review.

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16 October 2014 | PAGE 1 | Kids think when they are given things to think about

The review of the Australian curriculum published this week has frequently been described as a proposal for a “back to basics” curriculum. Even federal education minister Christopher Pyne has repeatedly talked about “the basics” in media commentary about the review.

Editorial | The basic message of the federal government’s review of the Australian curriculum is simple. Let’s throw ideology and trendy academic ­theories of learning out of the curriculum, return worthy subjects, such as sustainability, to specific areas where they belong, and get back to basics.

When David Gonski made his one and only comment on the Abbott government’s treatment of his school funding review in a speech in May this year it was abundantly clear that for Gonski, personally witnessing the conditions in which Australia’s least privileged children are educated was a revelatory and emotional experience.

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne has been rapped over the knuckles by the government’s own red tape watch dog for not clearly explaining his higher education reforms to groups affected by them.

The Abbott government has raised the white flag on up to $30 billion of budget savings, deciding to push the remaining few measures which have Senate support through the Parliament before recasting its budget strategy in December.

Geoff Hanmer is a speaker at The Australian Financial Review 2014 Higher Education Reform Summit being held at the Sofitel, Melbourne, from November 12-14. This is the first of a series of opinion articles by speakers at the summit.

Tim Dodd | The next few weeks will reveal whether they will signal a successful transition to a market-based system for undergraduate education or whether the competitive elements will be compromised by Senate wrangling.

Coalition MPs and senators from South Australia have pledged to ensure decisions on submarine building will “deliver more jobs” but stopped short of promising foreign companies will not do most of the work.

It would be ironic if Christopher Pyne got his higher education package through the Senate exactly as he wants it. Because if he did, he would likely be embarrassed by an own goal that would damage the credibility of the reforms.

Price competition between universities has stepped up a notch with La Trobe offering 1000 new students a 10 per cent cap on fee rises if the federal ­government’s deregulation plan is passed by the Senate.

The university sector has told Senate crossbenchers that universities are at a tipping point as it seeks to broker a deal which would enable deregulation of fees in return for diluting other cuts outlined in the budget.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is seeking a peace deal with Labor over the Renewable Energy Target with the admission that the fracturing of bipartisanship on the policy will kill investment in the sector.

Launching his exhibition of Robert Menzies’ first government at Canberra’s Old Parliament House on Wednesday, former prime minister John Howard couldn’t have snubbed Attorney-General George Brandis any more plainly.

Speaking of Abbott ministers George Brandis and Christopher Pyne, colleagues suspect the old pals have finally hugged it out after their biffo at the Liberal Party’s federal council in Melbourne two months ago.

Clive Palmer has written to Education Minister Christopher Pyne telling him the Palmer United Party would not be supporting his proposed deregulation of university fees or increased interest rates on student loans.

Rod Jones, CEO of Australia’s largest education firm Navitas, has strongly backed the Pyne higher education reforms, saying they will open the opportunity for university education to a new cohort of students.

The government will introduce its controversial higher education changes into Parliament on Thursday, a move that is likely to kick off fierce debate on deregulation of university fees and higher interest for student loans.

One of the greatest dangers for any politician is time. They longer they are in office, and the higher they rise, the harder they must work to stay in touch with the reality of the masses who vote for them.

The government has lost $5 billion in revenue this financial year due to its inability to pass key budget measures, including a fuel tax increase Treasurer Joe Hockey claimed would not affect poor people so much.

A storm erupted this week when Australia’s most technology savvy chairman, Catherine Livingstone, called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to develop a co-ordinated approach to innovation, science, engineering, research and education.

Universities have urged Education Minister Christopher Pyne to rethink his plan to apply a real interest rate to student loans following a new analysis that says it will have a “regressive” impact on low-income students.

After two years in operation, the carbon tax is dead. The Senate voted by 39 to 32 to kill the policy introduced by Julia Gillard in July 2012. But the climate change policy dispute is set to rage for years.

South Australia’s Labor government has split from federal Labor and quietly endorsed a key part of the Abbott government’s higher education reforms: funding private colleges and TAFEs to provide higher education courses.

In the conversation on higher education changes, university executives like Geoffrey Garrett of UNSW (“Americanised universities? There might be nothing wrong with that”, AFR, June 5), have attempted to justify Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s vision for fee deregulation based on the provision of equity scholarships for students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

One of South Australia’s most senior Liberal Party politicians, Iain Evans, has announced he will quit the SA parliament within the next 12 months, which will prompt a by-election in his safe Liberal seat.

We mentioned on Friday that as an economics/law undergraduate at Sydney University, Ross Cameron was on the other side to Chris Pyne and Joe Hockey in the great student revolt of 1987 over a $250 fee. And to be clear: the young pointy head really did voluntarily send a cheque for $2500 to the education department. “It was my form of protest,” Cameron told us.